In general, a dryer is a device of drying the laundry by use of hot and damp air, and includes a burner for producing the hot and damp air, i.e., heated air.
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a conventional dryer, and FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view of a conventional burner supporting device for a dryer.
As shown in FIG. 1, the dryer includes a drum 1 having a cabinet (not shown) forming its appearance and receiving an object to be dried therein. The drum 1 has a cylindrical shape with both ends thereof opened, and is rotated by a separate driving unit (not shown). To this end, the drum 1 is provided at an outer periphery thereof with a belt groove 2, which a driving belt (not shown) is wound on the belt groove. Also, the drum 1 is provided at an inner periphery thereof with a baffle 1a for tumbling the object to be dried during a rotation.
The drum 1 is provided at both opened ends thereof with a front head 3 and a rear head 5, respectively. A sealant 6 is interposed between the front head 3 and the drum 1 and between the rear head 5 and the drum 1 for prevent the leakage. The front head 3 is formed with a through-hole 4 for communicating the interior and exterior of the drum 1, and the through-hole 4 is selectively opened/closed by a door (not shown). An outlet assembly 11 is installed in a channel, through which the air is discharged from the drum 1, located under the through-hole 4 of the front head 3. The outlet assembly 11 is provided at a front thereof with a lint filter 12 for filtering out small, fine particles from the discharged air.
Also, the outlet assembly 11 is provided at the front thereof with a lint duct 13 accommodating the lint filter 12 therein and communicated with the outlet assembly 11. A blower 14 is installed at a rear of the lint duct 13. The blower 14 is to compulsorily discharge the air from the interior of the drum 1. The blower 14 is installed in a blower housing 15, and the blower housing 15 is communicated with the lint duct 13 and coupled to a discharge pipe 16 toward the exterior. The air in the drum 1 is discharged to the exterior through the outlet assembly 1, the lint duct 13, the blower housing 15 and the discharge pipe 16, by turns.
An air supply duct 17 is installed at a rear of the rear head 5, and a heated-air duct 18 is located under the air supply duct 17. The air supply duct 17 and the heated-air duct 18 serve as a role of supplying the heated air into the drum 1. To this end, a burner 20 is provided at the front of the heated-air duct 18.
The burner 20 includes a burner body 21 for injecting supplied gas, and a mixing pipe 22 extending from the burner body 21 to the interior of the heated-air duct 18. The burner body 21 is connected to a gas supply pipe 24, and has a valve (not shown) for controlling the supply of the gas. The mixing pipe 22 is to mix the gas injected from the burner body 21 with the air. The mixing pipe 22 is provided at a front end thereof with a spark plug 23 for igniting the burner.
The structure of supporting the burner 20 will now be described with reference to FIG. 2.
As shown in FIG. 2, a bottom surface of the cabinet or a separate base 30 has a ‘’-shaped support portion 40 for supporting the burner 20. The burner 20 is supported on the support portion 40, with the mixing pipe 22 seating on an upper surface of the support portion 40. Fastening flanges 41 are extended from both ends of the support portion 40, and are coupled to the base 30. The fastening flange 41 is rigidly secured to the base by separate fastening screws 42.
The conventional structure of supporting the burner 20 has a following problem.
In order to secure the support portion 40 to the base 30, it is required for a number of fastening screws 42. It causes the number of components to be increased, thereby increasing the manufacturing cost. In addition, the individually fastening operation of the fastening screws 42 results in the increased number of the assembling operation, thereby significantly reducing the assembling productivity.